2012 •

People Behind the Pixels

Abstract

Capstone info: The People Behind the Pixels is an online interactive timeline and database related to the significant People, Projects, Organizations and Events in Computer Graphics History. The site (historyofcg.com) will, for the first time ever, collect and archive the personal stories and highlight the connections between the academic researchers, engineers, and production artists who pioneered this exciting field. The project is being developed by Northeastern University’s 2011-2012 Interactive Media Capstone class, under the direction of Terrence Masson and Brian Sullivan. About the Project: The interface encourages computer graphics pioneers to contribute first hand accounts of their experiences through stories and rich media, while also creating connections with other pioneers. General users can discover and explore this content through the interactive timeline and content mosaics. Connections are illustrated by grouping stories and media related to a given topic entry. All content can be searched, filtered by keywords, or sorted chronologically or by popularity. Why it stands out: The only available online historical information about computer graphics is fragmented, incomplete and mainly deals with basic facts. Our project focuses on unique personal stories and dynamically highlights the connections of the people behind the pixels. Collecting this information for historians and researchers now is critical, while our still-young industry founders are still with us. This dynamically expanding database will perpetually weave new threads of connections throughout the decades of this increasingly pervasive and important industry.